Yeah, your confusion was the main impetus behind that. I realized that I could simplify that anyhow, but ONLY because of the way scouting was changed to have a defined limit to radius a month or two ago. So it's funny, because the scouting change made it so that teleporters could be simplified out.

Now theres just the Harvestotron that mines animals, plants, and minerals, all in one giant thing you probably don't want a house near.

Tech Prereq: Advanced Sausage Factory Design

"Combining the greatest advancements in the fields of hot dog production and game design, the Harvestotron..."

Soylent Green is people!!!

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Quote from: keith.lamothe

Opened your save. My computer wept. Switched to the ST planet and ship icons filled my screen, so I zoomed out. Game told me that it _was_ totally zoomed out. You could seriously walk from one end of the inner grav well to the other without getting your feet cold.

Aww a little bit sad teraforming was removed for player, was sorta interesting concept. The race with best polution clear land looked kinda fun from what I caught.I know yourteam strapped for time, but could it be like two layer map,One is core not changeable or not changeable much(eats lots of resources or time and planet may not like it much(ok alot), but if you /Really/ need it, then with few special techs hidden in the tech tree) -- mountains deserts, swamps, seas, meadows, lakes, forests. And one or several Race specific ones that layer on top of those for each race.

So for example:There is zenith Deserts, mountains, maybe even some strange forests, which are just grass for them, later Swamps, but no oceanWhile Skylaxians, may have their meadows 1, meadows 2, mountains, oceans, but no swampsPelters may have their own lands.Each land as some inpact on eco system both positive for race (good bonuses(morale, productivity, atmosphere), but also some of them negative like(planet likes less). Which makes choice would you like planet to like you, or solve this problem with soldiering/ shrines.

This in my opinion would still keep landscape interesting, and would make intereisting decisions like, which would push player to certain path in research:

What to terraform,

How much terraform

How to counteract enemy teraorming I can't teraform

How to counteract enemy teraforming with tech I have now

In anyway it is a little bit sad, but I guess it is not whole game, so I hope game wouldn't become less interesting because of it.

The removal of the terraforming was definitely not something that was done for time reasons. It was a choice made because of how it felt to me in play. The act of terraforming was so annoying that players had us put in an automation tool for it, which was one good sign something was up right there, heh. But also there were issues with the whole atmospheric results from that not being useful.

And even if you take that part out, it becomes something where it's very common to have way too much of the exact same terrain constantly surrounding you if you are terraforming a lot. As it is the AIs will still terraform, so you feel like they have more of a presence in the map. And you'll be able to get some interesting benefits from capturing territories that they terraformed and then NOT destroying what they terraformed. So that's going to be a new thing.

It's true that a lack of time does make me less interested in experimenting with player terraforming. But also I just haven't had any experiences with it yet in this game that actually made me excited at all in practice -- though on paper I had been very fond of the idea.

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I've played with and without terraforming and I must say, it is a neat toy. I mean you can completely ignore the mechanics built around it and do just fine.

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Quote from: keith.lamothe

Opened your save. My computer wept. Switched to the ST planet and ship icons filled my screen, so I zoomed out. Game told me that it _was_ totally zoomed out. You could seriously walk from one end of the inner grav well to the other without getting your feet cold.

It is ok. I'm a just a bit worried, that terraforming would be something hard to counter. Like every one teraforms so much, that atmospheric mix becomes pretty much inhospitable. Anyway, I understand what you are saying, from those old demo which I've seen the game has already interesting mechanics in reletive building placement, due to adjacency bonuses. So if it is just simple terraforming, it would be indeed look a bit separate of game, and would be boring, the same as just building same building over and over.

Removing terraforming for the player is probably a good descision, at least until a more interesting and dynamic terraforming model can be found.

Having said that, after it was taken out, and having played for a little while on the newest patch, I feel that the alien races around me are vibrant and interesting visiually.The player is stuck without UFOs and with a relatively bland building set.

I hope that there are some plans to make the visuals more appealing for the player, and for the map to come alive a little mroe. Colours and shapes go a long way to brighten up the map, as well as moving pieces.

I just haven't had any experiences with it yet in this game that actually made me excited at all in practice -- though on paper I had been very fond of the idea.

In my last game I'd built several volcanoes and had pushed the temperature up to the point where only the Thoraxians, the Spire and me (Zenith) could survive easily, and then suffered terribly from pollution caused by the collective air-cons of an entire Evuck city that lay upwind. The rise in pollution across the planet gave rise to a ridiculous amount of rogues, which went on to turn the entire planet into an inhospitable wasteland. 'twas glorious indeed.

No defense of terraforming here - it's not worth keeping a boring function for the rare occurrences that it's awesome. I just wanted to say

I just haven't had any experiences with it yet in this game that actually made me excited at all in practice -- though on paper I had been very fond of the idea.

In my last game I'd built several volcanoes and had pushed the temperature up to the point where only the Thoraxians, the Spire and me (Zenith) could survive easily, and then suffered terribly from pollution caused by the collective air-cons of an entire Evuck city that lay upwind. The rise in pollution across the planet gave rise to a ridiculous amount of rogues, which went on to turn the entire planet into an inhospitable wasteland. 'twas glorious indeed.

No defense of terraforming here - it's not worth keeping a boring function for the rare occurrences that it's awesome. I just wanted to say

That was the exact thing I was looking forward to. Very few if any games have offensive teraforming.